This invention relates to flavoring foodstuffs, to compositions of flavoring foodstuffs, and to the products so obtained.
Much attention has been devoted to improving the flavor of foodstuffs and particularly the flavors of meat products, fruits and confectioneries. There is also a need to provide compositions and processes for improving the flavors of meat products such as patties containing chicken meat or duck meat or turkey meat, or for providing savory meat flavors to foods containing a low level of poultry meat or to meat products having only a low level of flavor.
A substantial number of investigations have been carried out relating to reacting such materials as amino acids, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, sugars, sulfur-containing compounds (e.g., cysteine and hydrogen sulfide) and ribonucleotides in an effort to produce meaty tasting products including poultry meat tasting products, or ingredients therefor. Thus, for example, the following publications set forth such reaction products and methods for preparing same:
______________________________________ Publication Reactants ______________________________________ (1) U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,017 Poultry meat flavor produced by reacting thiamine and a mixture of amino acids (2) U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,437 Poultry flavor produced by reacting thiamine and 2- aminoethane sulfonic acid (3) South African published A saccharide, an amino acid Patent Application and an egg component which 70/4725 can be either egg white, egg yolk, or the contents of whole egg. (4) U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,514 Cysteine, sugar, fatty acid material. (5) Belgian Patent Reducing sugar and fish 740,221 product extract. (6) U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,015 Sulfur-containing compound and hydrolyzed vegetable protein (sugar-free) (7) U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,016 Thiamine and an aliphatic carboxylic acid (8) German Offen. 1,932,800 Hydrogen sulfide and a 4- hydroxy-2,3-dihydrofuran-3- one (9) U.S. Pat. No. 2,918,376 Fish protein hydrolyzate and cysteine (10) U.S. Pat. No. 2,887,387 Fish protein hydrolyzate and saccharide (11) Copending U.S. Patent Meat flavor produced by Application 343,360 the heat reaction (in the filed March 19, 1973 absence of any egg compo- nents) of an enzymatic digest of meat including poultry meat and a sulfur compound such as cysteine and, optionally, thiamine. ______________________________________
Still other publications set forth the use of eggs themselves as food ingredients. Two of these publications are as follows:
Canadian Pat. No. 898,055
Canadian Pat. No. 898,056
However, none of the foregoing references, disclosing processed food flavoring materials, discloses the production of a natural meat-flavored material from reactants having low meat levels and wherein one of the reactants is egg yolk, egg white, or the internal contents of an entire poultry egg, or enzymatic digest thereof, another of the reactants is a poultry meat powder or a meat powder other than poultry meat or enzymatic digest thereof and still another of the key reactants is a sulfur-containing compound. Although the abovementioned South African Patent Application No. 70/4725 describes reaction products wherein one reactant is the contents of an egg and another reactant is a mixture of amino acids, e.g., hydrolyzed vegetable protein, the reaction product disclosed is merely a meat extract flavor rather than a full bodied meaty flavor with substantially authentic mouthfeel and, no sulfur-containing compound is set forth as one of the reactants. In addition, thiamine or a salt thereof or a precursor thereof is not included as one of the reactants.
U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 304,805 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,958 and 304,806 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,862,343 filed on Nov. 8, 1972 disclosed a reaction product wherein all of the above-named reactants are used to form such reaction product except meat powder or an enzymatic digest thereof is not disclosed as one of the reactants. The omission of such material in the said earlier-filed copending patent applications gives rise to reaction products which are different in kind from those which represent our invention as set forth herein.
Copending U.S. application Ser. No. 342,360 cited above also contains disclosure of processes which give rise to reaction products which are different in kind from those which represent our invention as set forth herein.
______________________________________ "ADDITIONAL PERTINENT REFERENCES ______________________________________ 1) FID Handbook (Formulas and Product Specifications) Published by the Food Ingredients Division of the Nestle Company in White Plains, New York, 10605 (1967); pages of Interest: Introduction Page SPH-1 Page SPH-3 SPH-1A SPH-21 SPH-1B SPY1-1 SPH-1C SPY1-2 SPH-2 SPY-3 SPH-2A SPY-4 SPH-2B 2) CPC French Patent 2,181,585, Published December 7, 1973 ______________________________________